Search stepped up for three inmates flown out of yard at detention center

The search widened on Sunday for three inmates who escaped with the help of a helicopter from a detention center in Quebec City a day earlier.

It was the second helicopter-aided inmate escape in Quebec province in two years.

The three men escaped from the Orsainville Detention Center in suburban Quebec City at around 7:45 pm on Saturday with the help of a green helicopter.

It landed in the courtyard of the detention center, which has barbed-wire fencing and a guard post, and then quickly took off with the three inmates, heading west toward Trois-Rivieres or Montreal, police said.

Authorities were put on alert across Quebec, in the rest of Canada and in the United States, according to provincial police.

"We have cooperation with all the police forces across the country and abroad also," said Sergeant Gregory Gomez. "We have many, many officers who are searching all the areas possible. Investigators are, of course, checking every lead."

Police were reluctant to provide many details about their investigation for fear the escapees could be monitoring media reports.

The escapees - identified as Yves Denis, 35, Denis Lefebvre, 53, and Serge Pomerleau, 49 - were originally arrested on drug trafficking and gangster charges in 2010, according to police. Denis and Lefebvre were subsequently charged with murder, according to the Quebec provincial police website.

Police said the men were swept up in a major 2010 operation dubbed Operation Ecrevisse (Project Crayfish), aimed at bringing down a drug trafficking ring in northwestern Quebec. During the raid, officers made 51 arrests and seized C$905,000 ($827,000) and 2 kg of cocaine, along with other drugs, police said. They also seized a plane and a helicopter.

The status of the men's cases in the court system was not immediately clear. Provincial jails in Canada normally house people awaiting trial or those serving sentences of up to two years.

Police released photos of the three men on social media and appealed to the public for help, but warned anyone who spotted them not to approach and to immediately contact police.

Audrey-Anne Bilodeau, another police spokeswoman, said on Saturday that police were working with surrounding airports and Quebec's Valcartier military base to help track down the helicopter.

The Orsainville Detention Center, about 10 km from the center of Quebec City, can hold up to 710 offenders.

In March last year, a helicopter pilot was forced at gunpoint to pluck two inmates from the St-Jerome prison on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Two inmates climbed up a rope ladder into the hovering helicopter before it flew off.

Police caught the two escapees and two suspects thought to have hijacked the helicopter within a few hours of the escape.